So I finally decided to just go salt on my biocube. I stumbled across a semi-local reef store and some amazing help from the owner and the folks on the forum there. Very glad I found this store, the owner is just great. Bought 27 pounds of cured live rock from him at $4.99/lb and it's gorgeous rock with a lot of great life.

Sooo the live rock is in, the water has settled a bit (still is a little cloudy) and I'm seeing signs of life already. The first night I spotted various worms, a tiny white starfish with stubby legs (didn't get a picture of him as I was rushing out the door and stupidly told myself he would be right where he left himself when I got home. Um. No.) various small snails, some tiny featherdusters and some tiny...things. I can't even describe them. They are tiny, and things.

The temperature is stable at 80F, salinity is at 1.023. Readings are good across the board. Am still researching when to start adding a CUC and what to add. Will be weeks yet so I have time. Any suggestions appreciated.

The substrate is rather deep and a mixture of live sand and blue/black find marine sand. At first I regretted mixing the white live sand in there but now I rather like the mixture. I like the blue and black in there as it adds a bit of color and it's unique. I get a little tired of looking at white sand bottoms on reef tanks sometimes, but then again, I'm always a fan of the unusual and ugly.

Teeny the Snail. I named a snail I will probably never lay eyes on again and have no hopes of telling apart from any other snail in there. *makes crazy finger-twirling-around-temple-sign* I've seen 5 more snails since.

Videos won't help me as I'm deaf and can't hear what they say, but thanks!

I have decided to go reef...changed out the sand to live sand and added some more live rock. Here are updated pictures. I added a refugium with chaeto and a submersible LED to the back chamber along with purigen and chemi-pure elite.

Waiting for it to cycle so I can add CUC...shouldn't take too long since I used fully cured rock. Found a local reef store and forum that gave me the confidence I needed to try reef, so I'm excited :)

outpost

05-07-2010 10:12 PM

you will be a lot happier with a reef. So much more diversity. Fun to watch.

Justina

05-17-2010 11:07 PM

Hey man how is your tank coming along?

sericinda

05-17-2010 11:11 PM

coming along well, I added purigen and chemi-pure elite in the back chambers and boy, what a difference in water clarity!! It was clear to start with but the products really really cleared it up crystal clear.

I'm going to do a water change tomorrow, add some snails and shrimp on sat (already have crabs) and fish should start going in one a week starting next week. Then I will start adding corals. I'm excited :)

I've found some more hitchhikers...a chiton of some sort, lots of snails and a bunch more featherduster worms.

Justina

05-19-2010 03:02 PM

Are you using a skimmer on your biocube? Or are you just using what came with the Biocube, the bioballs, filter.

sericinda

05-19-2010 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justina
(Post 387012)

Are you using a skimmer on your biocube? Or are you just using what came with the Biocube, the bioballs, filter.

Bioballs came out immediately...they are nitrite traps. I am using the standard filter, no skimmer. I prefer weekly water changes to skimming on a nano-tank. I personally think skimmers pull out valuable nutrients as well as harmful and that water changes are more than sufficient to control this. I would use a skimmer on a larger tank, but I'm bypassing it on my cube.

CamryDS

05-19-2010 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sericinda
(Post 387017)

Bioballs came out immediately...they are nitrite traps. I am using the standard filter, no skimmer. I prefer weekly water changes to skimming on a nano-tank. I personally think skimmers pull out valuable nutrients as well as harmful and that water changes are more than sufficient to control this. I would use a skimmer on a larger tank, but I'm bypassing it on my cube.

imho I would do both skim and waterchange. and since it's a biocube 2.5gals of water changes per week with top offs during the week of freshwater would do the job -- no problems with my tank since i've gotten everything levelled.